Drakey Chats · 2:03pm Oct 13th, 2018
I've talked about good and bad stuff in games before. As I play through Neverwinter Nights (I'm a Wizard/Fighter who sent 6 in the former before dedicating to the latter, character name "Sunset Shimmer" with Ray the Pseudodragon as my familiar 
), I just enjoyed one of the most morally complex questlines of gaming.
Enter the Charwood quest.
You come across the village of Charwood as a ghostly village in ruins, its people seeming to not register your presence entirely. Entering the castle you find a guardian spirit of Lathander, who tells you the village's state is Lathander's doing. A great crime was committed here but Lathander felt himself too bias to judge in fairness, so he cast it into limbo to await a mortal to investigate and pass judgment. You are hereby tasked to speak to the culprits in their respective towers and discover the truth of what happened, and decide who did this crime.
What happened is that the brothers Jhareg, younger Quint and elder Karlat, ruled over the village, but Karlet was concerned with increasing problems in the area. He was a powerful wizard, and his brother a priest of Lathander, but they were not going to live forever. Karlet concocted a plan to become a baelnorn, a holy lich basically, so he could watch over and protect the village forever. However, the ritual to do this requires the sacrifice of the village children. Karlet told Quint to round up the children for a party at the castle, not telling Quint his true motives. Quint read to the kids as Karlet cast a spell to kill them, and when it happened Quint ran to confront Karlat, realized what he was doing, and stole his phylactery he'd use as a lich before the ritual finished. It was then that the town was sealed in limbo.
Quint is openly mad by his crimes and says it was his own fault the children died, for he gathered them up and killed them, and then got the place trapped in limbo for stealing the phylactery. He says he is to blame for everything and asks you judge him guilty for what happened. Karlat says Quint was to blame for the village's state because his deeds set the stage for what happened, and doesn't tell you about his plans to become a baelnorn unless you have his journal as evidence of this. However, both brothers' memories of events are hazy due to their time in limbo, and of course they each have their own type of bias.
However, there is a third side to the story the player can discover on their own, by piecing together nudges from the game of what Karlat did. In his tower you find a Wand of Protection From Evil, a Wand of Burning Hands, and a book of spells in Karlet's chamber mentions his ritual uses the belly of a fire beetle along with some sort of fire spell to summon the devil Belial, Lord of Fire. You can use the ritual chamber with the wands and a fire beetle belly to summon Belial. Belial reveals he was the one who told Karlat the means to create his phylactery and become a baelnorn, but the part about needing to kill the children? That was a lie, Belial did it because, well, he's a devil, it's what he does. He also lied that the kids would be able to be restored to life once Karlat's transformation was done. When the castle was trapped in limbo, Belial remained trapped too, awaiting judgment.
With all two, possibly three, culprits spoken to, you can return to the guardian spirit and pass a verdict.
- Declare Quint guilty - the phylactery is returned to Karlat, Quint passes into the afterlife, Karlat becomes a baelnorn and is never seen again. The village is returned from limbo, now in ruins and overrun with the fire-elemental fiends Karlat kept about in his tower.
- Declare Karlat guilty - the phylactery is destroyed and bother brothers pass into the afterlife. The village is returned from limbo, now in ruins.
- Declare Beilial guilty - presuming you did the secret objective to find Belial, you can call him to the court. The question then becomes of what is to be done with the phylactery. If you take it, the village is released from limbo to be ruins and the Brothers are free to go to the afterlife, but Belial is also freed from his captivity in the castle and returns to the Hells. If you have the guardian spirit retain the phylactery, all remains as it is now - the village stays trapped in limbo along with the Brothers and Belial, forever bound to the castle.
So... what judgement would you pass?
Personally I choose for declaring Belial guilty, he's the one who intoduced the concept of becoming a holy lich in the first place and while Karlat didnt have to listen to him, Belial was the one who coerced him into it. As far as what to do with Belial; I believe he should be returned to the nine hells, i dont feel comfortable condemning people into an eternal limbo and i have a feeling that someone else would replace Belial eventually anyway. That last decision was a tough one though.
Still surprised such lackluster module had a gem like that.
Can't remember what I picked, or if I had actually summoned Beilal at all or just read about it. I think I'd go with Karlat being guilty. Yes, Beilial was the one who told him to do it but he could have said no. I don't think killing your own people is great way for starting career of being their eternal watcher. Though I need to replay to be sure.
I approve of your character build.
As far as who is actually guilty, Karlat apparently thought the kids would be resurrected from what you said, and was manipulated, but still should have known to do literally anything but what a devil was recommending. They had other options. Beilial created the situation but didn’t actually force him to do anything.
As to what should actually be done...partly it depends on just how big a deal Beilial is. Lord of Fire could be a major infernal power, or just being pretentious. But on the other hand there won’t be a way to free the people trapped in village if you make it his prison. On the third, if you free them they’ll just die and go on to reward or punishment.
The best solution is to probably rule Karlat guilty and then use the ritual you’ve learned to bind Beilial somewhere else that won’t threaten innocents.
I remember playing that. Hah, good times. (Why don't we have a nostalgic emoji?)
I declared Belial guilty. Anything else would have been unjust. Originally I wanted to choose eternal limbo for him and the others (the guilty must be punished), but then I remembered that people were disappearing in that forest/being added to the village's people. Leaving that trap in place wasn't something I could do in good conscience.